Meand for supporting the roofs of mine-entries.



J. J. ROBY.

MEANS FOR SUPPORTING THE ROOES OF MINE ENTRIES.

APPLICATION FILED nc.9.1912.

1,229,323D PatentedJune 12, 1917.

, I 2 SHEET3-SHEET 1- H45 NGNRIS PETERS CD. PHUTU-LIYHO, WASHINGTON. D. C. 4

J. J. RUBY.

MEANS FOR SUPPORTING THE ROOFS OF MINE ENTRIES. APPLICATION FILED DEC.9, 1912.

llfiwgiggfi Patented June 12, 1917.

, 2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

#7 7 //v1 E/v TOR 5y mmw I so JAMES J. ROBY, 0F CLEVELAND, OHIO.

MEANS FOR SUPPORTING THE ROOFS OF MINE-ENTRIES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 12, 1917.

Application filed December 9, 1912. Serial No. 735,867.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES J. RoBY, citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Supporting the Roofs of Mine-Entries, of which the following is a specification.

My invention comprises a new and im proved means of supporting the roofs of mine entries, substantially as herein shown and described and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In all coal mines known to me, the means to support the roof of an entry involves the use of cross beams, uprights or posts, and lagging. My object is to provide an arched roof support made of metal, preferably of sheet steel, and to construct the entry in a particular way to seat said arched support, thereby eliminating the need of beams, posts or lagging in the entries except at turnouts as hereinafter described. The use of cross beams, posts and lagging requires cuttinginto both rock and coal by hand labor. If this is not done, ten to twelve inches of valuable head-room in the entry must be sacrificed for these supports. The more frequent practice is to provide no support until after the natural roof falls down; this fall usually occurs after deterioration sets in through exposure to air. Repeated falls of the roof fill the entry, delay mining operations, and result in accidents. Then before a roof of cross beams, posts and lagging can be erected to remedy matters it is still necessary to cut away a certain amount of the solid strataprincipally rockat the sides of the entry.

Following my method and using my invention no beams, posts and lagging are required. Installation preferably takes place before the roof is damaged by exposure to air, thereby forestalling breaks and falls in the roof and possible injury to persons. There is no delay in mining operations as the work of installation can proceed without disturbing the natural strata in the roof or sides of the entry. This means that no cutting or removal of stone is required, all cutting being in they coal wall which renders such work easier and swifter of execution. There is also no loss or sacrifice of head room in the entry as originally driven. The preparatory cutting steps in the side walls of the entry may be accomplished by a machine with a minimum of labor; and erection of the roof-support also involves little labor or time. There are no posts which can be displaced to cause accidents; no posts or lagging to decay, repair or replace. The arched construction gives a side bracing effect against the solid ribs of coal and distributes the down pressure uniformly to the best advantage, whereas the old way throws all the load directly downward on posts resting on a small portion of the coal rib which is apt to shear ofi and weaken the support.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a longitudinal section through a mine entry constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of one of the sheetsteel arch members having trolley-wire and feed-wire supporting means affixed thereto, and Fig. 3 is a perspective View of a plain form of arch member.

Fig. 4 is a cross section on line z2, Fig. 1, at a break-through in the entry. Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic view illustrating one way of erecting the arch members, and Fig. 6 illustrates an overlapping arrangement and also a corrugated form of my improved roof-support.

In many coal mine districts the cutting of an entry in the workable seam of coal is limited in height to the thickness of the seam, which may be about four or five feet, and the entry is usually made about eight feet in width. A stratum of slate,called draw-slate, is usually found above the seam, and a second narrow seam of coal of poor quality, called roof-coal, lies above the drawslate beneath a thick stratum of conglomerate. The workable seam is undercut and then blasted down and in this operation the draw-slate also comes down or is so broken that it is also necessarily removed; but the narrow seam of coal above remains intact and forms a natural roof for a greater or less period of time, say a year. Exposure to the air has a deteriorating effect on the roof- 60 I p e I V froef-center of the entry; 7 There'versely-"im clinedslopes of thew-shaped channels 4 per provide recesses for-shortwo'oden uprights or posts'npon which cross-beamswere placed 5 at the requisite elevation to i give head 5 room in the entry. These cross-beams occupied the space-formerly filled by thereof-coal,

' and short pieces ot timber, called lagging,

placed in bridging position uponthe'se crossbeams served to support theconglomerate above.

coal by R, 1 and the conglomerate by O, and lthe' (51d i YP 'f roof support is represented by*the short uprightsor post-s "V seated 'at the "side of the entry, the cross-beams '-I- resting on these posts, and the lagging L supper-ted by the said cross-beams 'Now describing my invention, the entry E is constru'cted' its 'iullleng'thTWith an arti- 'ficial'roof "formed ofme't'al plates 2 curved to' a radius best suited to Withstand" the load, see Fig. '5.

These plates When 'in place rest at their angularly bent ends Bvfithi'ntW V shaped channels l cut by "hand "or machine in the'workable seam of coal ateither side ofthe-entry. The channels -are about three feet abovethe-floor'and parallelthere- "with, and cutting of the channels may take place *while the entry is "being f driven, or this Work may be acco1nplisl1ecl"at:a'nytime thereafter but before a Y fall of the roof c'oal- Indeed the preferred Way is to YVith this end in view and with bracing results for the roof, atliird channel 50f curved formatlon 1s out may the seam of roof-coal R longitudinally of' thefentry-at its centen whereby the plates 2 may be" sol-T Fidly seatedn-nd wedged inplacei'at three points, that is; at both sides? and also the mit' the ends8"of l the metal plates 2to fbe arrangement of this kind is shown in Fig. 1, 1n- "connectlon With *myi'ntheffur- 7 their object of providingthe' most eifective' f gallery "consisting i'of providing aflexible entered and seated therein by flexing the 7 the plates and also to spread them ifneces- 'sary. However, the plate itself possesses su-flicient spring to effect seating thereof in r the entry. The preferred way is to roll the vplates to a fixed curvature of greaterradius than the plate is to assume eventually. The p'l'ates -are then e'asily' handled in erecting operations and have suflicient spring to fit them in place. The 'weight carried the l'n'lates -is directeddownvvard and outward in vieWof their jarc'h formation and the plates I may 7 be 7 'of any thickness 'to meet "any given need. Only 'a "lateral pressure "or pull inwardly toward the-center oftheentry will displace the plates from the an-amenablespikes 7 maybe set {in the bottom slope of these 'c'hani nel's to furtherfix the plates in'pla ce. Buck ling of the plates into the corner spaces "8 of -the entry is prevented by filling 1 this space With loose material taken from the entr The plates 2 may i be -,p1-evi&ed' With-openings or slots 15 i either end :to per-mime V 'tachment of turn-bukle rods in erecting'or dismantling operations. Any one or 'a-series of these 7 plates may thereby be iquic'kly and V convenientlytaken'down i f the need should arise, and when taken down, the roof coal is still in place for temporary protection. Abandoned and untraveled entries may-thus be stripped "of these plates for use else- "Wheren' i 'I'n general, the entry E communicates at intervals With an "adjacent entry 'bytrans verse passages 13, "calledbreak throughs which are used temporarily for the "circula- *tionof airwhenrtheentry 'isbeingdriven,

In erectingthe arched "at their 'endsby flanged beams 16' seated in 'pocketsfl the vorkable" seam of coal in "line with channels A, 'andthe pl-ates 2"engagewithin and against "the'toes or fiang'es ot "these beams in the samejmanner as in th channels "a If desired, the lates I may be boltedtois'aid beams 16. 7 a What'Tclaim is: e I

' *1." Method "of supporting-earoof of a mine of the ineinberjat itsnormal curvature, flex "in'g *the'ends' offsaid memberto permit of,

entry iiitestepsdomiecl in the' side Walls of v "the gallery and allowing said 'en'dsto spring into said steps Whereby the "crown is'mainf Thehereindescribed method of suppoitingthe roof of a mine entry,- consisting in cutting channels in the side walls of the In testimony whereof I afiix my signature 10 entry, arching a flexible plate to a fixed in presence of two witnesses.

curvature, flexing the 1(lands of said plate ilrliward, seating the arc ed plate against t e root of the entry, and springing the ends JAMES ROBY' of said plate outward into said channels and in wedged position against said side walls \Vitnesses:

to maintain the plate in constant close con- E. M. FISHER,

tact with said roof. R. B. MOSER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. U. 

